A’s add Yankees Triple-A manager Al Pedrique to staff

Updated 1:34 pm, Monday, December 4, 2017

The A’s filled the vacancy on their coaching staff Monday with a man who has managed two of the team’s up-and-coming players.

While managing in the Yankees’ farm system, Al Pedrique worked with Dustin Fowler, who is the frontrunner for the A’s starting center field job, along with highly regarded young infielder Jorge Mateo. Pedrique spent the past two seasons at Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre, where he won a Triple-A championship in 2016, and he was lauded for the development of the Yankees’ top prospects, including Aaron Judge, Clint Frazier and Gary Sanchez.

Pedrique, 57, was expected to be a candidate for the Yankees’ open managerial position but he did not get an interview. The A’s hired Pedrique to be their first-base coach and moved Mike Aldrete to assistant hitting coach and Marcus Jensen to the bullpen-coach job. Oakland was left with a vacancy when bullpen coach Garvin Alston accepted a job on the Twins’ big-league staff.

Pedrique, who is from Venezuela, played in the Mets’ minor-league system with A’s vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane, and he had a brief major-league career, playing 174 games with the Mets, Pirates and Tigers. Pedrique was Arizona’s third-base coach and interim manager in 2004, going 22-61. He also spent three year on the Astros’ big-league staff, including two years as the team’s bench coach.